[smnplk]

I feel sorry for Ian. That c5 move totally destroyed him. Some people don't understand how elementary mistake that was. And to make it in slow chess... I hope he recovers from that and goes on to win some tournaments. But as for the next candidates match, I think Alireza or Giri have the best chance to win it.

[noir_lord]

I'm a patzer, I hover around 1600-1700 elo and I'd seen c5 and ruled it out as losing becuase it traps the bishop, when he played it was I like "oh, I guess it doesn't and I missed something".

That was an unusual feeling because normally I can only get a hint of what they are doing by loading the PGN into an engine interface and playing through the game trying out variations against the engine.

[kzrdude]

Ding Liren was extremely strong pre covid, now I'm not sure, but he could be a stronger challenger than for example Girl.

[tephra]

I don't think Giri has actually qualified yet.

[v64]

Correct, the next Candidates tournament has only 2 spots left, and those are going to the top 2 winners of the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix.